2014 Abridged

Technology and Engineering

Literacy Framework

F O R T H E 2 0 1 4 N A T I O N A L A S S E S S M E N T 

OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS
1 | NATIONAL ASSESSMENT GOVERNING BOARD 2014 ABRIDGED TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING LITERACY FRAMEWORK | 2

The National Assessment of Educational Progress 

(NAEP), otherwise known as The Nation’s Report 

Card, informs the public about the academic 

achievement of elementary and secondary students 

in the United States. Report cards communicate 

the findings of NAEP, a continuing and nationally 

representative measure of achievement in various 

subjects over time. For more than 35 years, NAEP 

has assessed achievement by testing samples of 

students most often in the fourth, eighth, and 12th 

grades. The results have become an important source 

of information on what U.S. students know and are 

able to do in a range of subject areas.

To create the new assessment, the National 

Assessment Governing Board sought a framework 

of technological literacy knowledge and skills that 

identifies the understandings and applications of 

technology principles that are important for all 

students. The framework defines “literacy” as the 

level of knowledge and competencies needed by all 

students and citizens. More than testing students 

for their ability to “do” engineering or produce 

technology, then, the assessment is designed to gauge 

how well students can apply their understanding 

of technology principles to real-life situations. At 

grade 4, for example, all students are expected to 

identify types of technologies in their world, design 

and test a simple model, explain how technologies 

can result in positive and negative effects, and use 

common technologies to achieve goals in school and 

in everyday life. By grade 12, students are expected 

to select and use a variety of tools and media to 

conduct research, evaluate how well a solution meets 

specified criteria, and develop a plan to address a 

complex global issue. To learn more, see a video 

clip (“Ecosystems”) in the interactive framework of 

a sample scenario for grade 8 showing a student 

investigation of how organisms in an ecosystem are 

affected by a pollutant.

Technological literacy at grades 4, 8, and 12 is a 

pathway promoting further study and occupational 

pursuits. The Governing Board assembled a broad 

array of individuals and organizations to create 

a test of students’ abilities to grasp and apply 

technology principles. The resulting framework is 

the culmination of a long, complex process that drew 

on the contributions of thousands of individuals 

and organizations including technology experts, 

engineers, teachers, researchers, business leaders, 

testing experts, and policymakers. 

The 2014 NAEP Technology and Engineering Literacy 

Assessment will provide important results and 

information that can be used to determine whether 

our nation’s students have the essential knowledge 

and skills needed in the technology and engineering 

areas. Policymakers, educators, and the public can 

use data from the initial assessments as tools for 

monitoring certain aspects of student achievement in 

technology and engineering literacy over time.

We live in a world that is, to a large extent, 

shaped by technology: The computers and 

smart phones we use, the cars and planes 

we travel in, the homes and offices we 

inhabit; our food, clothes, entertainment, 

and medical care—all are created and 

driven by technology. Technology is also 

at the root of critical challenges we face as 

a society, such as the quest to link experts 

throughout the world, the search for 

sustainable energy, the ability to deal with 

global pandemics, and the development of 

environmentally friendly agriculture to 

feed a growing world population.

Until now, however, technology has not 

been a focus of instruction and assessment 

in our educational system, particularly 

at the elementary and secondary levels. 

Because of the growing importance 

of technology and engineering in the 

educational landscape, and to support 

America’s ability to contribute to and 

compete in a global economy, the 

National Assessment Governing Board 

initiated development of the first national 

assessment in Technology and Engineering 

Literacy. Relating to national efforts in 

science, technology, engineering, and 

mathematics (STEM) fields, the NAEP 

Technology and Engineering Literacy 

assessment measures the “T” and “E” in 

STEM, augmenting longstanding NAEP 

assessments in science and mathematics.

Introduction

NAEP Technology and Engineering 

Literacy (TEL) Assessment
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Recognizing that it is not possible to assess every 

aspect of technology and engineering literacy, the 

TEL assessment framework targets the nature, 

processes, and uses of technology and engineering 

that are essential for 21st century citizens. 

The assessment objectives are organized into three 

major areas: Technology and Society; Design and 

Systems; and Information and Communication 

Technology (ICT). Each broad category is further 

broken down into discrete areas to be assessed.

The interconnected relationship among these three 

major assessment areas can be illustrated as a threesided pyramid in which each side supports the other 

two. For example, in order to address an issue related 

to technology and society, such as clean 

Engineering is a systematic and often iterative 

approach to designing objects, processes, and systems 

to meet human needs and wants. 

This framework defines technology and engineering 

literacy in a broad fashion:

Technology and engineering 

literacy is the capacity to use, understand, 

and evaluate technology as well as to understand 

technological principles and strategies needed to 

develop solutions and achieve goals.

Thus—as with scientific, mathematical, and language 

literacy—technology and engineering literacy 

involves the mastery of a set of tools needed to 

participate intelligently and thoughtfully in society.

Any assessment of students’ technology and engineering literacy must start with a clear idea of exactly 

what technology and engineering literacy means. That in turn requires clear definitions of technology 

and engineering.

water, energy needs, or information research, a 

person who is literate in technology and engineering 

must understand technological systems and the 

engineering design process and be able to use various 

information and communication technologies to 

research the problem and develop possible solutions.

Definitions of Technology, Engineering, 

and Technology and Engineering Literacy

Three Areas of Technology 

and Engineering Literacy

Technology is any modification of the natural 

world done to fulfill human needs or desires. 

This definition sees technology as encompassing 

the entire human-made world, from paper to 

the Internet. Technology also includes the entire 

infrastructure needed to design, manufacture, 

operate, and repair technological artifacts, from 

corporate headquarters and engineering schools to 

manufacturing plants and media outlets.

Design and

Systems

Information and

Communication

Technology

Technology 

and Society
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B. Effects of Technology on the Natural World

is about the positive and negative ways that 

technologies affect the natural world. Fourth-graders 

are expected to know that sometimes technology can 

cause environmental harm. For example, litter from 

food packages and plastic forks and spoons discarded 

on city streets can travel through storm drains 

to rivers and oceans where they can harm or kill 

wildlife. Eighth-graders are expected to recognize 

that technology and engineering decisions often 

involve weighing competing priorities, so that there 

are no perfect solutions. For example, dams built 

to control floods and produce electricity have left 

wilderness areas under water and affected the ability 

of certain fish to spawn. By 12th grade, students 

should have had a variety of experiences in which 

technologies were used to reduce the environmental 

impacts of other technologies, such as the use of 

environmental monitoring equipment.

C. Effects of Technology on the World of 

Information and Knowledge focuses on the rapidly 

expanding and changing ways that information 

and communication technologies enable data to 

be stored, organized, and accessed and on how 

those changes bring about benefits and challenges 

for society. Fourth-graders should know that 

information technology provides access to vast 

amounts of information, that it can also be used to 

modify and display data, and that communication 

technologies make it possible to communicate 

across great distances using writing, voice, and 

images. Eighth-graders should be aware of the rapid 

progress in development of ICT, should know how 

information technologies can be used to analyze, 

display, and communicate data, and should be able to 

found it useful to be able to communicate with others 

wherever they were. Eighth-graders are expected to 

understand how technologies and societies co-evolve 

over significant periods of time. For example, the 

need to move goods and people across distances 

prompted the development of a long series of 

transportation systems from horses and wagons 

to cars and airplanes. By 12th grade, students 

are expected to realize that the interplay between 

culture and technology is dynamic, with some 

changes happening slowly and others very rapidly. 

They should be able to use various principles of 

technology design—such as the concepts of trade-offs 

and unintended consequences—to analyze complex 

issues at the interface of technology and society and 

to consider the implications of alternative solutions.

collaborate with other students to develop and modify 

a knowledge product. By 12th grade, students should 

have a full grasp of the types of data, expertise, and 

knowledge available online and should be aware of 

intelligent information technologies and the uses of 

simulation and modeling.

D. Ethics, Equity, and Responsibility concerns the 

profound effects that technologies have on people, 

how those effects can widen or narrow disparities, 

and the responsibility that people have for the 

societal consequences of their technological decisions. 

Fourth-graders should recognize that tools and 

machines can be helpful or harmful. For example, 

cars are very helpful for going from one place to 

another quickly, but their use can lead to accidents in 

which people are seriously injured. Eighth-graders 

should be able to recognize that the potential for 

misusing technologies always exists and that the 

possible consequences of such misuse must be taken 

into account when making decisions. By 12th grade, 

students should be able to take into account both 

intended and unintended consequences in making 

technological decisions.

Area 1. Technology and Society

deals with the effects that technology has on society 

and on the natural world and with the sorts of ethical 

questions that arise from those effects.

The four sub-areas in which students 

are assessed include:

A. Interaction of Technology and Humans

concerns the ways in which society drives the 

improvement and creation of new technologies and 

how technologies serve society as well as change it. 

Fourth-graders are expected to know that people’s 

needs and desires determine which technologies are 

developed or improved. For example, cell phones 

were invented, produced, and sold because people 
7 | NATIONAL ASSESSMENT GOVERNING BOARD 2014 ABRIDGED TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING LITERACY FRAMEWORK | 8

is in order to decide if the item should be replaced or 

how to fix it. Eighth-graders should be familiar with 

the concept of maintenance and should understand 

that failure to maintain a device can lead to a 

malfunction. They should also be able to carry out 

troubleshooting, at least in simple situations. By 12th 

grade, students should know that many devices are 

designed to operate with high efficiency only if they 

are checked periodically and properly maintained. 

They should also have developed the capability to 

troubleshoot devices and systems, including those 

that they may have little experience with.

Area 3. Information and 

Communication Technology

includes computers and software learning tools, 

networking systems and protocols, hand-held 

digital devices, and other technologies for accessing, 

creating, and communicating information and for 

facilitating creative expression. 

The five sub-areas in which students 

are assessed include: 

A. Construction and Exchange of Ideas and 

Solutions concerns an essential set of skills needed 

for using ICT and media to communicate ideas and 

collaborate with others. Fourth-graders should 

understand what is expected from members working 

as part of a team and should realize that teams 

are better than individuals at solving many kinds 

of problems. Eighth-graders should know that 

communicating always involves understanding the 

audience—the people for whom the message is 

intended. They should also be able to use feedback 

from others, and provide constructive criticism. By 

12th grade, students are expected to have developed 

a number of effective strategies for collaborating with 

others and improving their teamwork. They should 

be able to synthesize information from different 

sources and communicate with multiple audiences.

B. Information Research includes the capability 

to employ technologies and media to find, evaluate, 

analyze, organize, and synthesize information from 

different sources. Fourth-graders should be aware 

of a number of digital and network tools that can 

be used for finding information, and they should 

be able to use these tools to collect, organize, and 

display data in response to specific questions and 

to help solve problems. Eighth-graders should be 

aware of digital and network tools and be able to use 

them efficiently. They should be aware that some 

of the information they retrieve may be distorted, 

exaggerated, or otherwise misrepresented, and 

they should be able to identify cases where the 

information is suspect. By 12th grade, students 

should be able to use advanced search methods and 

select the best digital tools and resources for various 

purposes. They should also be able to evaluate 

information for timeliness and accuracy.

C. Investigation of Problems concerns the use of 

information and communication technology to define 

and solve problems in core school subjects and in 

practical situations. Fourth-graders should be able 

to use a variety of information and communication 

technologies to investigate a local or otherwise 

familiar issue and to generate, present, and advocate 

carry out a full engineering design process to solve 

a problem of moderate difficulty. By 12th grade,

students should be able to meet a complex challenge, 

weigh alternative solutions, and use the concept of 

trade-offs to balance competing values.

C. Systems Thinking is a way of thinking about 

devices and situations so as to better understand 

interactions among components, root causes of 

problems, and the consequences of various solutions. 

Fourth-graders should know that a system is a 

collection of interacting parts that make up a whole, 

that systems require energy, and that systems can be 

either living or non-living. Eighth-graders should 

be able to analyze a technological system in terms 

of goals, inputs, processes, outputs, feedback, and 

control, and they should be able to trace the life 

cycle of a product from raw materials to eventual 

disposal. By 12th grade, students should be aware 

that technological systems are the product of goaldirected designs and that the building blocks of any 

technology consist of systems that are embedded 

within larger technological, social, and environmental 

systems. They should also be aware that the stability 

of a system is influenced by all of its components, 

especially those in a feedback loop.

D. Maintenance and Troubleshooting is the set of 

methods used to prevent technological devices and 

systems from breaking down and to diagnose and fix 

them when they fail. Fourth-graders should know 

that it is important to care for tools and machines 

so they can be used when they are needed. Students 

should also know that if something does not work as 

expected, it is possible to find out what the problem 

Area 2. Design and Systems covers 

the nature of technology, the engineering design 

process by which technologies are developed, and 

basic principles of dealing with everyday technologies, 

including maintenance and troubleshooting.

The four sub-areas in which students 

are assessed include:

A. Nature of Technology offers a broad definition 

of technology as consisting of all the products, 

processes, and systems created by people to meet 

human needs and desires. Fourth-graders are 

expected to distinguish natural and human-made 

materials, to be familiar with simple tools, and to 

recognize the vast array of technologies around them. 

Eighth-graders should know how technologies are 

created through invention and innovation, should 

recognize that sometimes a technology developed for 

one purpose is later adapted to other purposes, and 

should understand that technologies are constrained 

by natural laws. By 12th grade, students should 

have an in-depth understanding of the ways in which 

technology coevolves with science, mathematics, and 

other fields; should be able to apply the concept of 

trade-offs to resolve competing values; and should be 

able to identify the most important resources needed 

to carry out a task.

B. Engineering Design is a systematic approach 

to creating solutions to technological problems and 

finding ways to meet people’s needs and desires. 

Fourth-graders should know that engineering design 

is a purposeful method of solving problems and 

achieving results. Eighth-graders should be able to 
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for possible solutions. Eighth-graders should be 

able to use digital tools to identify and research a 

global issue and to identify and compare different 

possible solutions. By 12th grade, students should 

be able to use digital tools to research global 

issues and to fully investigate the pros and cons 

of different approaches. They should be able to 

design and conduct complex investigations in 

various subject areas using a variety of digital tools 

to collect, analyze, and display information and be 

able to explain the rationale for the approaches they 

used in designing the investigation as well as the 

implications of the results.

D. Acknowledgement of Ideas and Information 

involves respect for the intellectual property of 

others and knowledge of how to credit others’ 

contributions appropriately, paying special attention 

to the misuse of information enabled by rapid 

technological advances. Fourth-graders should 

understand that it is permissible to use others’ ideas 

as long as appropriate credit is given. They should 

also know that copyrighted materials cannot be 

shared freely. Eighth-graders should be aware 

of general principles concerning the use of other 

people’s ideas and know that these principles are the 

basis for such things as school rules and federal laws 

governing such use. They should know about the 

limits of fair use of verbatim quotes and how to cite 

sources. By 12th grade, students should understand 

the fundamental reasons for intellectual property 

laws and should know acceptable practices for citing 

sources when incorporating ideas, quotes, and 

images into their own work.

In all three areas of technology and engineering 

literacy, students are expected to be able to apply 

particular ways of thinking and reasoning when 

approaching a problem, and they are expected to do 

so in various contexts. 

The practices can be grouped into three broad 

categories: Understanding Technological Principles; 

Developing Solutions and Achieving Goals; and 

Communicating and Collaborating. 

Understanding Technological 

Principles focuses on students’ knowledge and 

understanding of technology and their capability to 

think and reason with that knowledge.

Developing Solutions and 

Achieving Goals refers to students’ 

systematic application of technological knowledge, 

tools, and skills to address problems and achieve 

goals presented in societal, design, curriculum, and 

realistic contexts.

Communicating and 

Collaborating centers on students’ capabilities 

to use contemporary technologies to communicate 

for a variety of purposes and in a variety of ways, 

working individually or in teams. 

E. Selection and Use of Digital Tools includes 

both knowledge and skills for choosing appropriate 

tools and using a wide variety of electronic devices, 

including networked computing and communication 

technology and media. Fourth-graders should know 

that different digital tools have different purposes 

and they should also be able to use a variety of 

digital tools that are appropriate for their age level. 

Eighth-graders should be familiar with different 

types of digital tools and be able to move easily from 

one type of tool to another—for example, creating a 

document or image with one tool and then using a 

second tool to communicate the result to someone 

at a distant location. By 12th grade, students should 

be competent in the use of a broad variety of digital 

tools and be able to explain why some tools are more 

effective than others that were designed to serve 

the same purpose, based on the features of the 

individual tools.

Although these elements are central to the design 

of the NAEP Technology and Engineering Literacy 

Assessment, they are not sufficient to describe the 

kinds of reasoning to be expected from students, 

the context or subject matter that will be used to 

construct test items, or the overall shape of the entire 

assessment. The assessment targets and the sub-areas 

within each describing what students should be able 

to do foreshadow the cross-cutting practices—ways 

of thinking and reasoning—for which the TEL 

is designed.

These practices are applied across all three major 

assessment areas. For example, communicating 

effectively and collaborating with others are necessary 

skills for understanding the effects of technology on 

the natural world, designing an engineering solution 

to a technological problem, and achieving a goal using 

information and communication technologies.

Practices and Contexts for Technology 

and Engineering Literacy

Communicating & Collaborating

Underst

a

n

ding

Technological Principles Developing Solutions

&

Ac

hie

v

ni g

Goa

sl

Design and

Systems

Information and

Communication

Technology

Technology

and Society
11 | NATIONAL ASSESSMENT GOVERNING BOARD 2014 ABRIDGED TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING LITERACY FRAMEWORK | 12

As crucial to the assessment as the practices are the contexts—the situations and types of problems in which 

assessment tasks and items will be set.

The practices expected of students are general, cross-cutting reasoning processes that students must use in 

order to show that they understand and can use their technological knowledge and skills. The contexts in which 

technology and engineering literacy tasks and items appear will include typical issues, problems, and goals 

that students might encounter in school or practical situations. Together, the assessment targets, practices, and 

contexts provide a structure for the generation of tasks and items. 

Below are examples of the types of tasks and items that result when these three elements are combined. 

The table shows how the three practices—Understanding Technological Principles, Developing Solutions 

and Achieving Goals, and Communicating and Collaborating—can be used to classify the general types 

of thinking and reasoning intended by the assessment targets in the three major assessment areas of 

Technology and Society, Design and Systems, and Information and Communication Technology.

Classification of types of assessment targets in the three major assessment areas according 

to the practices for technology and engineering literacy

Understanding 

Technological 

Principles

Technology

and Society Design and Systems

Information and

Communication 

Technology

Developing 

Solutions and 

Achieving Goals

Communicating 

and Collaborating

Analyze advantages and disadvantages of 

an existing technology

Explain costs and benefits

Compare effects of two technologies on 

individuals

Propose solutions and alternatives

Predict consequences of a technology

Select among alternatives

Select appropriate technology to solve a 

societal problem

Develop a plan to investigate an issue

Gather and Organize data and 

information

Analyze and Compare advantages and 

disadvantages of a proposed solution

Investigate environmental and economic 

impacts of a proposed solution

Evaluate trade-offs and impacts of a 

proposed solution

Present innovative, sustainable solutions

Represent alternative analyses and 

solutions

Display positive and negative 

consequences using data and media

Compose a multimedia presentation 

Produce an accurate timeline of a 

technological development

Delegate team assignments

Exchange data and information with 

virtual peers and experts

Describe features of a system or process

Identify examples of a system or process

Explain the properties of different 

materials that determine which is suitable 

to use for a given application or product

Analyze a need

Classify the elements of a system

Design and Build a product using 

appropriate processes and materials

Develop forecasting techniques

Construct and Test a model or 

prototype

Produce an alternative design or product

Evaluate trade-offs

Determine how to meet a need by 

choosing resources required to meet or 

satisfy that need

Plan for durability

Troubleshoot malfunctions

Display design ideas using models and 

blueprints

Use a variety of media and formats to 

communicate data, information, and ideas

Exhibit design of a prototype

Represent data in graphs, tables, and 

models

Organize, Monitor, and Evaluate the 

effectiveness of design teams

Request input from virtual experts and 

peers

Provide and Integrate feedback

Describe features and functions of ICT 

tools

Explain how parts of a whole interact

Analyze and compare relevant features

Critique a process or outcome

Evaluate examples of effective resolution 

of opposing points of view

Justify tool choice for a given purpose

Select and Use appropriate tools to 

achieve a goal

Search media and digital resources

Evaluate credibility and solutions

Propose and Implement strategies

Predict outcomes of a proposed approach

Plan research and presentations

Organize data and information

Transform from one representational 

form to another

Conduct experiments using digital tools 

and simulations

Plan delegation of tasks among team 

members

Provide and Integrate feedback from 

virtual peers and experts to make changes 

in a presentation

Critique presentations

Express historical issues in a multimedia 

presentation

Argue from an opposing point of view

Explain to a specified audience how 

something works

Address multiple audiences

Synthesize data and points of view

PRACTICES

Understanding Technological

Principles

Developing Solutions and

Achieving Goals

Communicating and 

Collaborating

CONTEXTS

Societal Issues

Design Goals

School and Community

Problems

ASSESSMENT

AREAS

 Technology and Society

 Design and Systems

 Information and

 Communications

 Technology (ICT)

Elements of the NAEP Technology and Engineering Literacy Assessment
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To identify what students know and can do with 

regard to technology and engineering, the NAEP 

TEL framework calls for the assessment to be totally 

computer-based. In 2014 the NAEP TEL assessment 

will be conducted at grade 8 with a national sample 

of students in public and private schools. The 

assessment will include tasks and items sampled 

from the domain of technology and engineering 

literacy achievement identified by the intersection of 

the three major areas of technology and engineering 

literacy and the cross-cutting practices at grades 4, 

8, and 12—grades that will participate in the TEL 

assessment in future years. 

Allowing students to demonstrate the wide range 

of knowledge and skills detailed in the NAEP 

Technology and Engineering Literacy Assessment 

targets will require a departure from the typical 

assessment designs used in other NAEP content 

areas. Thus students will be asked to perform a 

variety of actions using a diverse set of tools in 

the process of solving problems and meeting goals 

within rich, complex scenarios that reflect realistic 

situations. Consequently, this assessment will rely 

primarily on scenario-based assessment sets that test 

students through their interaction with multimedia 

tasks that include conventional item types, such as 

selected response items, and also monitor student 

actions as they manipulate components of the 

systems and models that are presented as part of 

the task. 

Because of their capability to replicate authentic 

situations examinees may encounter in their lives, 

scenarios have the potential to provide a level of 

authenticity other types of assessment tasks cannot 

provide. At the same time, the choice to use these 

complex tasks reduces the number of measures that 

can be included in any one test and causes many 

of the measures to be interdependent because they 

are related to the same scenario. To counteract this 

interdependency and ensure reliability, the NAEP 

assessment of technology and engineering literacy 

will also include sets of discrete items that produce 

independent measures. 

Scenario-Based Assessment Sets 

There will be two types of scenario-based assessment 

sets, one long and one short. The long scenarios will 

take students approximately 25 minutes. The short 

scenarios will take students about 12 to 15 minutes 

to respond. The two types of scenarios have common 

characteristics, but they differ in the complexity 

of the scenario and the number of embedded 

assessment tasks and items to which a student is 

asked to respond.

A set of sample video clips demonstrates the types of 

interactivity and functionality of tools that students 

might be expected to use as they respond to short 

and long scenarios that will be developed for the 

Technology and Engineering Literacy Assessment.

Discrete Item Sets 

Discrete item sets will include conventional selected 

response items and short constructed response items. 

The discrete item sets will comprise approximately 

10-15 stand-alone items in either selected or 

constructed response format to be completed within 

a 25-minute block. Each discrete item would provide 

a stimulus that presents enough information to 

answer the particular question posed in the stem 

of the item. Items in discrete sets will be selected 

response items (e.g., multiple choice) or short 

constructed response items in which a student 

writes a text-based response. 

 Background Variables

Content and Design

Background data on students, teachers, and schools 

are needed to fulfill the statutory requirement that 

NAEP include information, whenever feasible, for 

various subgroups of students at the national level 

including gender, race/ethnicity, eligibility for free 

or reduced-price lunch, English language learners, 

and students with disabilities. Therefore, students, 

teachers, and school administrators participating 

in NAEP are asked to respond to questionnaires 

designed to gather demographic information. 

Information is also gathered from non-NAEP sources, 

such as state, district, or school records. For the 

2014 NAEP Technology and Engineering Literacy 

Assessment, only student and school information will 

be collected as many students will not have taken 

a separate course in technology and engineering 

literacy taught by a specific teacher.

In addition to demographic information, background 

questionnaires include questions about variables 

related to opportunities to learn and achievement in 

technology and engineering literacy. The variables 

are selected to be of topical interest, to be timely, 

and to be directly related to academic achievement 

and current trends and issues in technology and 

engineering literacy. Questions do not solicit 

information about personal topics or information 

irrelevant to the collection of data on technology and 

engineering literacy achievement.
15 | NATIONAL ASSESSMENT GOVERNING BOARD 2014 ABRIDGED TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING LITERACY FRAMEWORK | 16

 Achievement Levels

The Governing Board uses student achievement 

levels of Basic, Proficient, and Advanced to report 

results of NAEP assessments. The achievement 

levels represent an informed judgment of “how 

good is good enough” in the various subjects that 

are assessed. Technology and Engineering Literacy 

achievement levels specific to the 2014 NAEP 

Technology and Engineering Literacy Framework 

will be developed to elaborate the generic policy 

definitions of Basic, Proficient, and Advanced 

achievement. Preliminary achievement level 

definitions have been developed for each of the three 

areas to be reported separately in the assessment and 

they will be used to guide item development and 

initial stages of standard setting for the 2014 NAEP 

Technology and Engineering Literacy Assessment. 

The preliminary achievement level definitions will 

be revised when actual student responses have 

been collected and analyzed. The Governing Board 

will convene panels of experts to examine the 

preliminary achievement level definitions and to 

recommend final achievement level definitions for 

each grade level. 

Conclusion

For generations students have been taught about technology and have been instructed in the use of 

various technological devices, but there has been no way to know exactly what students understand 

about technologies and their effective uses. The exploding growth in the world of technology led 

the Governing Board to sponsor the development of a framework for a National Assessment of 

Technology and Engineering Literacy. The Governing Board hopes that this TEL Framework will serve 

as a significant national measure of what students know and can do in technology and engineering, 

and support improvements in student achievement.

To view the complete Technology and Engineering Literacy Framework 

for the 2014 NAEP, or to view an interactive version of the framework, please visit 

http://nagb.org/publications/frameworks.htm or call us at 202.357.6938.
The National Assessment Governing Board is an independent, bipartisan 

board whose members include governors, state legislators, local and state 

school officials, educators, business representatives, and members of the 

general public. Congress created the 26-member Governing Board in 1988 

to set policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
For more information on the National Assessment 

Governing Board, please visit www.nagb.org

or call us at 202-357-6938.